DUBLIN — Mike Porto was busy on July 17, 2013 — so much so that he claimed in an invoice to the city that he worked 26.5 hours that day.

The independent planning consultant dashed from meetings with the fire department to sit-downs with developers, but most of his time was spent reviewing plots for residential projects he oversees for the city.

The payout: $3,312.50, a small fraction of the $418,562.50 he pulled in from the city of Dublin that year.

Porto and his company have had a lot of lucrative days working for Dublin over the past 10 years, making about $4.5 million in that span. The lion’s share of the work has been done by Porto himself, according to a review of invoices obtained by this newspaper.

Although developers, not taxpayers, ultimately pick up the tab for Porto’s work, the large paydays and questionable billing practices — brought to light by this newspaper — prompted the City Council on Feb. 2 to review procedures on hiring and renewing the contracts of consultants, take a fresh look at ethics guidelines and reassess how staff reviews consultants’ bills.

The issue has also raised concerns about the consultant’s influence on the city’s rapid growth, which has become a point of contention among residents and officials. Porto has shepherded approval of the vast majority of Dublin’s large residential projects, which have blanketed the city’s eastern hillsides with thousands of houses and frustrated many residents who clamor about traffic jams and crowded schools.

Porto did not respond to numerous requests for comment.

But city staff and some elected officials have characterized his services as invaluable, describing him as a tireless worker whose days are jam-packed with meetings and site inspections.

And while acknowledging there may be some “clerical errors” with his bills because of aggregating hours, Porto’s supervisors said they’re confident that he works the hours he charges the city.

But those assurances aren’t enough to assuage residents and some elected officials.

“I’m concerned by the findings,” said Vice Mayor Abe Gupta. “Council needs to take an active eye toward figuring out how the money is being spent and whether the safeguards are in place to make sure the system isn’t being abused.”

Porto, who lives in Southern California, began working for Dublin in 1993.

Luke Sims and Jeff Baker, who run the city’s community development department and supervise Porto, said the consultant had gained a reputation for excellent work in other Bay Area cities including Danville and Brentwood.

The planning work that he handles for the city has never been put out for competitive bid.

City officials said one of the reasons they use Porto’s company, in addition to their two staff planners, is that planning work can wax and wane depending on the housing market. For that reason, it’s advantageous to not have permanent staff on the payroll when building dries up.

Porto’s company, Stevenson, Porto & Pierce, worked between 3,576 and 4,625 hours per year over the past seven fiscal years.

Porto has personally averaged more than 40 hours per week for the past six years. In addition to his work, the company occasionally uses a second planner and also bills for its administrative costs — all at $125 per hour. In fiscal year 2013-2014 — his most active year — Porto worked a whopping 3,348.5 hours, an average of 64.4 hours per week, assuming he never took a vacation.

The $418,562.50 that he grossed that year eclipsed the city’s highest-paid employee, City Manager Chris Foss, who makes $291,813 a year, including benefits, and was more than the combined annual earnings of Dublin’s two full-time planners — who make $178,000 and $167,000.

During that same period, Porto also managed to pull in a small amount of work from Hercules, according to that city’s records.

To sustain those hours, Porto would have had to work marathon days, especially considering that he often flies to Southern California on Fridays.

Five days after he billed the city for a 26.5-hour day, Porto lodged a 20-hour day. He also billed the city for 20 hours on Oct. 8, 2013, and 21 hours on Oct. 17, 2013.

When asked about the invoices, Sims said he didn’t find them unsettling.

“I think we can acknowledge that, to the average person, that seems like an awful lot of hours and some might consider it impossible,” he said. “However, this is a gentleman who takes his work very seriously.”

He and Baker said Porto begins work early in the morning and that his days are full of meetings with city staff, visits to project sites and presentations to the City Council.

Porto has an office at City Hall but also occasionally works from his home, according to the city.

“Frankly, he could not perform the work that’s being done in an eight-hour day — that’s clear,” Sims said.

When asked about the 26.5-hour day, Sims and Baker said they believed Porto aggregated hours from other days. That’s a practice they said needed to cease, adding that they were planning to reform the way Porto submits his invoices. They also said the contractor is allowed to round up to the half-hour when he works more than 10 minutes.

Some of the itemized invoices also are vague.

Porto billed the city 46 hours with one flick of the pen in January 2014 for “project review coordination,” which he said took place over four days. In October 2013, he billed the city 16.5 hours with the description “hours estimates.”

Baker said that in the future Porto would need to break down his invoices by days and not provide ranges.

But Sims said that what’s of paramount importance is that Porto does his job well and that the hours are billed to the correct project, as that developer ultimately will pick up the tab plus a 40 percent surcharge.

Lori Taylor, a spokeswoman for the city, said the surcharge is common and reimburses the city for its overhead.

But it irks Gupta, who’s gained a reputation as being one of the more anti-development members of the council.

“I want to make sure that we don’t tacitly tell developers if you pay these very high fees, you’re going to get approved,” he said.

Gupta said he’s also concerned that Porto isn’t required to disclose conflicts of interest because he’s not an employee.

Taylor said that because staff members ultimately approve and sign off on all of Porto’s work, he’s not subject to state ethics laws. He’s also been exempted by Foss, the city manager, from disclosing conflicts under the city’s ethics code.

That conclusion doesn’t hold water for Mike Martello, a former city attorney for Mountain View.

“Somebody like this involved in big projects should absolutely disclose,” he said. “The people in those seats, they are acting like and exercising decision making at high levels.”

Kevin Fryer, a developer for Mission Valley Properties who has worked with Porto for years, wrote a letter to this newspaper describing Porto as the hardest-working, most conscientious planner he’s ever encountered.

“I am better at my job, and the projects I have worked on are better communities for their residents and for the entirety of Dublin for having had him involved,” he said.

But it’s the fact the city shuffles payments from developers like Fryer to Porto that has made Kerrie Chabot, a frequent critic of development in the city, question his work.

“He continuously supports rezoning of commercial and retail for more housing without any intention of insuring the infrastructure,” Chabot said.

Chabot, who was hushed by City Councilman Kevin Hart when she attempted to criticize Porto at a meeting last fall, said the fact that Porto doesn’t live in Dublin also is problematic.

“If you’re planning a city, you need to know how it works at 6 in the morning, at 12 in the afternoon and during school festivals,” she said. “You need to be here.”

Crews from several fire departments are battling a major grass fire late Saturday afternoon that has claimed at least 500 acres in a rural area in Solano County between Vacaville and Winters, and is prompting mandatory evacuations, firefighters said.